Wagering accounts, sometimes referred to as gaming accounts or player wagering accounts, are electronic ledgers that can replace the use of cash for gaming transactions by recording the deposits and withdrawals of a player who would otherwise conduct these activities with cash. Wagering accounts provide numerous benefits to both players and game operators.
For players, wagering accounts provide greater safety, sanitation, and convenience by reducing players handling of cash. Additionally, players can receive accounting reports of their transactions based on players' use of the wagering account.
For casinos, wagering accounts decrease the time casinos must spend handling and securing cash while providing the casino with more cost-effective financial accounting. Casinos also benefit from increased knowledge about consumer spending inside of the casino.
However, wagering accounts are only redeemable at a casino and do not provide convenient availability of funds for other purposes such as retail purchases. Additionally, certain jurisdictions can require different wagering accounts for specific activities such as separate accounts for live wagering, racing and sports, and for online wagering. Funds in these wagering accounts cannot be directly transferred to other wagering accounts and cannot be spent on non-wagering purchases.
A loyalty card from the casino enables a player to be compensated with bonuses and complementary rewards based upon the player's casino-related activities (i.e., gaming and/or purchases). A player's loyalty card is oftentimes conveniently linked to their wagering account(s) to enable the player to use their wager account(s) for gaming. However, as a result of the drawbacks of the wagering account(s), wagering accounts are still only used by a relatively small numbers of players.